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Wayne Jones sees off qualifying foe
Friday 16th December 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Wolverhampton’s Wayne Jones avoided a banana skin to overcome preliminary qualifier Scott MacKenzie in the first round of the PDC World Championships.
Jones beat MacKenzie 3-1 in the last match of the first night of the tournament at the Alexandra Palace in London last night.
MacKenzie ousted Paul Barham 4-2 in a preliminary match in the second game of the evening to face Jones, who reached the semi-final in 2006.
The winner would advance to face Dutchman Roland Scholten, who beat Jamie Caven 3-1 in the opening match, in the second round.
And Jones stormed into a 2-0 lead, before letting MacKenzie back in for 2-1, then overcoming a shaky last set to seal a safe passage through.
He said: “There were some patches of being pretty good there and it’s great to be through. I know I hit a few 180s, but it was a bit frustrating that I struggled to score well outside of that.
“Scott played really well and was more consistent than I expected and, if it had gone to a deciding set, he would have probably beaten me, so I’m pleased to get it over with.”
Jones knew he was in a contest from the off, MacKenzie starting well to lead 2-1 in the first set, but held his throw for a second time to take the fourth leg and hit double five with his last dart in the deciding leg to edge ahead.
‘The Wanderer’ took the next set without reply before MacKenzie took advantage of Jones’ struggles to hit doubles to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
MacKenzie capitalised on more missed darts at doubles from Jones to win the first leg of set four, but the 15th seed recovered to take the second after MacKenzie missed the bullseye for a 167 checkout.
Jones hit double top to win the next leg against the darts and then closed out the game by landing double 16 at the first attempt.
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